


Runner of Pern: The Closest We'll Get To No Romance

by silveradept



Series: The Suck Fairy's Greatest Hits: The Dragonriders of Pern [21]
Category: Dragonriders of Pern - Anne McCaffrey
Genre: Background Radiation Sexism, Gen, Meta, Nonfiction, Sexism, Swearing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-24
Updated: 2018-05-31
Packaged: 2021-03-06 16:47:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,357
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26052151
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/silveradept/pseuds/silveradept
Summary: A commentary read with excerpts of Runner of Pern, a short story of the Ninth Pass of Pern, part of the Dragonriders of Pern series.
Series: The Suck Fairy's Greatest Hits: The Dragonriders of Pern [21]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1663699
Kudos: 2





	1. A Peek At Another Craft

**Author's Note:**

> This is the Director's Cut of meta originally posted at [Slacktiverse](https://slacktiverse.wordpress.com).
> 
> Content notes for each chapter are in their respective posts, and all content notes in the work are in the tags.
> 
> Director's commentary will be rendered _[in a manner like this.]_

Last time, we had to deal with the fact that the previous book was put in place so that someone would feel a bit better about the sudden departure of Robinton, and so that the author could try and make changes to the timeline while pretending not to do so.

Thankfully, as a bit of a breather, we have Runner of Pern.

**Runner of Pern: Content Notes: Background Radiation Sexism**

In the guide I've been using for which things to tackle next, this is slotted in quite late in the sequence, but noted that I could have read it any time after the first book. This suggests a very high degree of stand-alone-ness.

Our viewpoint character is Tenna, an apprentice express delivery runner, who is in the middle of a long-distance delivery run, which gives her a convenient way to gush over the people who founded the runner stations (a practice that arose during First Fall) and their ability to cover legendary amounts of ground on any given day.

> Lopers had been able to put themselves in some sort of trance which not only allowed them to run extended distances but kept them warm during snowstorms and freezing temperatures. They had also planned the original traces, which now were a network crisscrossing the entire continent.

Also importantly, runnerbeasts are too expensive for the average person (as they should be), and drums are great for short messages when the weather is good, so letters get carried in pouches by human runners.

_[The comments to this story point out that while runnerbeasts are individually too expensive for anyone, the benefits they provide in speed for the post, or in ability to haul large amounts of mail for the post, would probably make them part of the runner network and bought and treated as the investments they are, assuming there's enough profit in delivering the mail to be able to afford them. Which there might not be, with the services that are standard at every Runner Station.]_

The traces are also apparently easy to tell from the space around them - the springy texture changes to something else when you stray from the path.

We are told that Tenna has runner in her bloodline, sufficiently so that her mother tells her "It's for how long, not will you, for a female" in regard to Tenna's nervousness about whether she'll be selected to be a runner. Which is nice - it's been a while since we've seen a group that's perfectly fine with having women in it and not caring all that much about sexist crap.

Even better, Tenna might be our first explicitly childfree character.

> Tenna had decided a long time ago--when she had first been considered old enough to mind her younger siblings--far she'd prefer running to raising runners. She'd run until she could no longer lift her knees. She'd an aunt who never mated: ran until she was older than Cesila was now and then took over the management of a connecting station down Igen way. Should something happen and she couldn't run anymore, Tenna wouldn't mind managing a station. Her mother ran hers proper, always had hot water ready to ease a runner's aching limbs, good food, comfortable beds, and healing skills that rivaled what you could find in any Hold.

I'm quite sure that the narrative will do something about this by the end of it all, but it's nice to have someone saying they're not interested in kids, and to have an aunt who didn't have any sex at all. I knew these people had to exist in Pern. It's terrible that it's taken this long to see one.

_[Although, it makes a certain amount of sense that if we are finding people who never took mates, and people who might not ever want children, that we are finding them in the first profession that isn't actually actively trying to exclude women from joining or push out the ones that are already there. And they're far enough down the nobility line that there's nobody trying to make alliances with them or insist they find mates and have children to continue the lines of succession, regardless of whether they actually want it. It's the perfect place of being able to afford your own life without having to depend on a man.]_

Mallum, a runner that Tenna is familiar with, is scheduled to give her the Runner final exam, but he comes in hobbling and Cesila immediately sets to healing the heel that's been injured, and Mallum sets to hitting on everyone that's helping him heal up.

> "And is this the lass of yours as is to be taken for a run?" he asked, relaxing his expression from the grimace he'd made when the poultice was first applied. "Prettiest of the bunch." And he grinned at Tenna.  
>  "Handsome is as handsome does," Cesila said. "Looks is all right but long legs is better. Tenna's her name."  
>  "Handsome's not a bad thing to be, Cesila, and it's obvious your daughter takes after you."  
>  Cesila sniffed again but Tenna could see that her mother didn't mind Mallum's remarks. And Cesila was a handsome woman: lithe still and slender, with graceful hands and feet. Tenna wished she were more like her mother.

So Mallum looks Tenna up and down and pronounces her a good body type for running. The next day, after rest, Tenna and Mallum go out on a short run, after Tenna shows Mallum her runner shoes, which have cleats or spikes on them. The spike length varies based on the toughness of the ground. Mallum also checks Tenna's clothes to make sure she's not going to get blisters and that she's warm enough to run before they set out. And dragons fly overhead by coincidence before disappearing into hyperspace.

The next day starts with Mallum giving advice to Tenna about running, a lecture she has heard many, many times before from other runners and her relatives. Runners are also described as carrying small things like numbweed or poultices and wearing a very specific long-tailed orange headband in addition to their message pouches. And the nuclear disaster-level background radiation of sexism continues, even as Tenna is keeping good pace with Mallum.

> "Running with a pretty girl's not hard to do," he told her when they took one brief pause.  
>  She wished he didn't make so much of her looks. They wouldn't help her run any better or help her become what she wanted to be: a top runner.  
>  [...and they stop at the destination station...]  
>  Old Irma came out with a grin on her sun-dried face for them.  
>  "Will she do, Mallum?" the old woman asked, handing each a cup.  
>  "Oh aye, she'll do. A credit to her Bloodline and not a bother to run with!" Mallum said with a twinkle in his eye.  
>  "I pass, do I, Mallum?" Tenna asked, needing to have a direct answer.  
>  "Oh, aye," and he laughed, walking about and shaking his legs to get the kinks out even as she was doing. "No fear on that. Any hot water for m'poultice, Irm?"  
>  [...there's water and conversation...]  
>  "Not when I'd a chance to run with such a petty girl," Mallum said.  
>  "Just like a man," Irma said dismissively.  
>  Tenna felt herself blushing, although she was beginning to believe he wasn't just teasing. No one else had ever commented on her looks.

I like Tenna a lot so far. (And I've checked the copyright on this work - 1999. This might be an author starting to catch up with the times. Or so we can hope.) And Irma, too. Mallum, on the other hand, certainly seems like the kind of person that is right at home on Pern.

So Tenna takes a message back home, where she's congratulated on joining the runners officially and then comes a quick montage of Tenna running local routes and ending up being the only runner that can take a priority message northward into a snowstorm, which nets her "extra stitches on her belt, marking her rise toward journeyman rank" for her excellent time made. Which is the first time I have heard the Runners are arranged in a guild structure like other Crafts, and now I want to know a lot more about how that gets done. Because presumably it's all about good time. _[And is also the first time where there has been some sort of objective criteria for determining how far someone is along their pathway to the next rank. If there's a runner belt that's specifically designed with the right number of holes from apprentice to journey-rank, and then from journey-rank to Mastery, that would be the best thing ever, for everybody involved.]_

When we get back to Tenna, she's taking a run to Fort, and we learn that runners are good at spotting useful herbs and that they carry tablets that can be chewed to ease cramps in the leg. And there's the possibility of renegades (which would not have made any sense if I had started with this before doing Renegades of Pern), although the only known acts of violence against runners happened at Lemos and Bitra (no surprises there). Tenna is mostly concerned about the possibility of tunnel snakes, and is hoping that she has enough time to stay over for the Gather at Fort and get some more leather using "runner-station chit." and possibly bargaining a bit with it.

Something catches her ears, and once she figures it out, Tenna has to fling herself off the runner trail as a person on a runnerbeast thunders by. And then, after the danger has passed, has to make sure that she doesn't get any complications or needles working their way in from the sticklebush that she threw herself into. Which makes her incredibly cranky about why there was a rider on the runner traces and all the potential damage and delay that could have happened to the messages. No further mishaps happen and Tenna reaches her waypoint, taking some time to heal and complain about the rider, whom the staff of Three Hundred (as all the runner stations are known solely as numbers) know and suggest that he was running an experiment (as well as trying to cut a half hour of time off the trip).

> "You'd better tell him. Maybe a pretty runner'll get it through his thick skull because the odd crack or two hasn't."  
>  His reaction made Tenna feel that her anger was righteous. It's one thing to be angry on your own, another to have confirmation of your right to be angry. She felt redeemed. Though she couldn't see why being pretty would be an advantage if you were giving someone what-for. She could hit just as hard as the ugliest runner she'd ever met.

This person will later praise Tenna's good time and say that it "[s]hows you're not just a pretty face." So there's this tension between Tenna being pretty and being effective, which is really much closer to the Terra of our times than a far-future/past society.

Tenna goes up for a soak for her tired muscles, and we note the description of massage tables and oils in a place and time that doesn't seem like massage of that nature would exist, but perhaps that art survived or was rediscovered quickly as runners become a worldwide network. And because it's Fort, it has the benefit of easy hot water. The station master's wife comes by to put some medicine in the tub _[epsom salts, I woudl guess]_ to help pull out the slivers and figure out how Tenna wants to spend the night.

And also to talk to her about Haligon _[, the person riding the runnerbeast that ran Tenna off the traces]_.

> "Pretty runner girl, you are. You give Haligon what-for next time you see him.  
>  "How'll I know him?" Tenna asked acerbically, though she dearly wished a confrontation with the rider. "And why is 'pretty' a help?"  
>  "Haligon likes pretty girls." Penda gave an exaggerated wink. "We'll see you stay about long enough to give him what-for. **You** might do some good."

Okay, so I'm all in favor of people complimenting an athletic build (as Tenna presumably has, having trained to be a runner from early on) as pretty. It continues to feed the idea that the author has a preference for women with smaller chests and thinks of them more as heroes than women with more classically sexy builds, but apart from that, it's fine.

That said, the repetition of the word pretty is starting to sound like a plot point. After Tenna soaks, gets massaged and slivers plucked from her by Penda, and has a nap, she shows up to dinner. After everyone shakes their head at Haligon's recklessness (and tells her that Groghe was informed about the near-miss), the word reappears again.

> "You'll be right then. I've seen your kin on the traces, haven't I? Betchur one of Fedri and Cesila's, aincha?" He smiled knowingly at the others. "You're prettier than she was and she was some pretty woman."  
>  Tenna decided to ignore the compliment and admitted to her parentage. "Have you been through Station Ninety-Seven?"

It's like the narrative is telling us that we shouldn't believe Tenna's desire to be childfree and run, because she's too pretty to accomplish this task. Given what we know about the author's willingness to use force as "romance", I'm edgy about the possibility that Tenna may not get a choice.

Tenna's remaining injuries are noticed, examined, and a Healer sent for to make sure that she's going to be fine from the sticklebush. Tenna doesn't want the healer, because healers cost and that would mean she couldn't get good leathers at the Gather. Torlo points out that since one of Groghe's runnerbeasts caused the incident, Groghe will pick up the tab for the Healer. Journeyman Beveny does three good things immediately on arrival - he asks Penda to help, he conducts the examination publically, and he listens to what the runners are suggesting as medicines to draw out the remaining slivers that Tenna might have. (Tenna is embarrassed by the attention, but recognizes it as runner standard, based on her own observations at Ninety-Seven.) Beveny mixes and applies a poultice, notable for not being too hot when applied, and then leaves with the idea of checking on Tenna tomorrow. And then dinner happens, with runners being drafted to get Tenna food, drink, and utensils, on the idea that Tenna shouldn't move. (The embarrassment returns to Tenna over the attention, but she again remembers it as runner standard.) Others help her to bed. 

The next morning, there's still one sliver stuck in her, so Beveny leaves more poultice, and something to soak in the tub with. Tenna is wondering why all the attention, and Torlo points out that he wants the Healer to see the injuries so that when they complain about Haligon, the Healer will back them up. Beveny also insists Tenna stay resting, lest she re-infect the wound with the dust and dirt of running. This puts her in Fort for the Gather, as she wants, but leaves her without clothes for the party. Rosa and Spacia offer to lend her clothes, except nothing they have would fit her, and in a flash of inspiration, they take Tenna to Silvina at the Harper Hall to get fitted. Silvina has a practiced eye and puts her in a near-perfect dress...but Tenna needs some padding in the chest to fill it out correctly. (Which gets done by Silvina, and then stitched into place.) Spacia has a bit of a laugh about having to pad herself, but preferring that to being top-heavy and bouncing around. 

I'm a bit surprised nobody has created a sport bra or a binder that would help with that problem, but I continue to be surprised at the things that Pern lacks that I would have expected to have been developed by now. _[Even if there were such a thing, it would almost certainly be a thing of annoyance to those who wore it, because brassieres in 21st c. Terra are aggravations that are necessary rather than garments that provide any comfort at all.]_

Everyone smiles at Tenna, having it in their head that she should look her very best when she gives Haligon the business.

The next day, the last known sliver pops out, and Tenna takes a short run to the docks to collect ship manifests and mail and doesn't pay much attention to the soreness in her shin on the way back. Day after that is Gather day, and Tenna is enchanted with everything, even if Rosa and Spacia are skeptical about the return of Thread, despite the astronomical indicators working.

The two others point out Haligon, and that makes Tenna get on board with making herself as pretty as possible before she gives him what-for. And admits to herself that she might be pretty.

The girls hatch a plan, based on a lack of runner cords, that Tenna might be mistaken as a Harper when she rattles Haligon's cage. Rosa's dress rips, and she sends Tenna to collect Cleve, Rosa's intended, away from Felisha, who has designs on him as well. Cleve is all too happy to take an excuse to leave Felisha, who acts as a [Clingy Jealous Girl](https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ClingyJealousGirl).

This is where we get Tenna's plan: to trip Haligon somewhere publically, like the dancing square. (In addition to charges being leveled like reckless behavior and causing a loss of income.)

Tenna and Cleve wander the stalls, where she gets a glimpse of herself in a Glasscraft mirror and almost doesn't recognize herself. [She Cleans Up Nicely](https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/SheCleansUpNicely), I guess.

Here's a good place to stop, before anyone gets up to violence.


	2. A Comedy Of An Error

Last time, we got Tenna to Fort Hold for a Gather by having her get run off the runner traces and into sticklebush, which required several days of healing to get Tenna back on her feet. She's currently making the rounds with Rosa and the man Rosa intends to date, Cleve, and has had decided which person is Haligon out of two that could have fit the bill based on the descriptions given.

**Runner of Pern: Content Notes: Background Radiation Sexism**

I stopped at that point because we're about to meet a Pernese custom that hasn't been mentioned before now. And that would definitely have influenced my reading of earlier books if I had encountered it before this point.

> "There he is!" Rosa said suddenly, pointing across the square to where a group of young men were surveying girls parading in their Gather finery. It was a custom to take a Gather partner, someone with whom to spend the occasion--which could include the day, the evening meal, the dancing, and whatever else was mutually decided. Everyone recognized the limitation and made sure the details were arranged ahead of time so that there wouldn't be a misunderstanding of intent.

Oh, _really_? It's a social custom for people to pair up for parties, with an expressly negotiated agreement of what that responsibility will entail? That sounds both highly regressive (what if you don't want a partner? Do men get to refuse, but women have to accept a partner or be thought someone of low morals?) and moderately progressive (negotiated limits on dates!) for Pern. It feels like an author having had two decades of experience and fans putting this in here.

I also have a sinking feeling a lot of those agreements aren't going to be respected by the end, or that someone in no state to consent will be pressured to do so.

The "he" spotted in this case is Haligon, and Tenna spots a perfect place to cause embarrassment and muck his clothes.

> Tenna went right up to him, tapped him on the shoulder, and when he turned around in response, the arch smile on his face turned to one of considerable interest at her appearance, his eyes lighting as he gave her a sweeping look of appreciation. He was looking so boldly that he did not see Tenna cock her right arm. Putting her entire body into the swing, she connected her fist smartly to his chin. He dropped like a felled herdbeast, flat on his back and unconscious. And right on top of some droppings.

Nice punch. _[It is nice to have a series where women and girls get the opportunity to punch out the lights of bad dudes and don't get immediately censured by everyone for doing it.]_ As Tenna heads back, another "lad in brown" stops her and asks her what the hell is going on. She explains that it's revenge for Haligon pushing her into sticklebushes, which stops the somewhat mirthful look on the other lad's face cold when she shows him the healing injuries.

> "I'm sorry to hear that." And he sounded sincere, his expression somber. Then he gave his head a little shake and smiled at her, a trifle warily, but there was a look in his eyes that told her he found her attractive. "If you promise not to drop me, may I say that you don't look at all like most runners I've met." His eyes lingered only briefly on her bodice, and then he hastily cleared his throat. "I'd better get back and see... if Haligon's come to."

Of course, when Tenna gets back, she finds out that she flattened Horon, Haligon's twin and a bad man in his own right, and was explaining herself to Haligon. The other girls don't consider it a bad thing that Horon got knocked out, and they brush off Tenna's worry when she sees Haligon headed to the runner station, because

> "Torlo would love to remind him of all the harm he's been doing runners."  
>  "Even if they weren't as pretty as you are," Cleve said.

And there's that word again. Everyone seems to think that Tenna's pretty, but nobody seems to have the presence of mind to keep it to themselves.

Tenna has business still, in acquiring her leathers, and there's a piece at a tanner's that she has her eye on, in nice emerald, a good color for a runner for her area. (Apparently, runners like to match their leather colors to the colors of the soil and ground around them, so the Southern Boll runners like red-browns.) The tanner quotes her nine marks as the price (which is the highest price I've heard at a Gather to this point, given that Piemur could get lots of bubbly pies for an eighth mark,) and everyone agrees it's robbery at that price. And Tenna can't afford it anyway, because she's only got four. They look for other leathers that might suit for shoes, but don't really find anything as spectacular.

Tenna is ready to give up and settle for something when Lord Groghe approaches them, asks for some time at a free table, orders drinks, and apologizes to Tenna in a low voice that won't travel past the table. Groghe says Haligon is reckless, but he doesn't knowingly cause injuries, and that Torlo had informed him about several other near-misses. Tenna accepts the apology and asks Groghe to make sure that riders stay off the runner traces.

> "I have been well and truly told off, Runner Tenna." He smiled back at her, his eyes dropping for a split second to her bodice. "You're a very pretty girl. Blue becomes you." He reached over and gave her hand a pat before he rose. "I've told Torlo the incursions will cease." Then in his usual booming voice, he added, "Enjoy the Gather, runners, and the wine."

Does Tenna have some sort of curse on her that every person around her has to tell her that she's pretty? Because this is well past ridiculous, especially given the description Groghe gets a few paragraphs later.

> "But Lord Groghe's a fair man, even if he usually thinks women are half-wits. But he's fair." Then [Rosa] giggled again. "And he said how pretty you are, so that helped, you know. Haligon likes his girls pretty. So does Lord Groghe but he only looks."

I would like to make a cutting remark here about only looking, but as far as I can tell, it's accurate. _[Except that Groghe, in later-set books, has a whole bunch of sons that he's trying to pawn off and figure out how to settle down in their fight for inheritance, so it would seem like Groghe did not just look. Given that both he and Haligon briefly dip their eyes to Tenna's bodice, whatever Silvina did with the padding has clearly made Tenna into someone who enough apparent bust to be worth a look, even if everyone is too polite to stare.]_

Haligon joins the table by unrolling the emerald leather that Tenna had her eye on in front of her and sincerely apologizing for the trouble he caused. And then, after getting her apology, asks her for a dance.

> Tenna pretended to consider. But she was secretly thrilled, for despite their first encounter, there was something about Haligon that she found very attractive.

And here's where I start I steam up a tad, because we've left the Comedy of Errors and are much more into the territory of Much Ado or the Taming of the Shrew, and I want, just once, for someone to go through the story without ending up falling in love with someone, even though she's pretty.

Haligon asks if Tenna will be his meal partner, and she accepts.

> Tenna returned to the station long enough to put away the beautiful leather. And long enough to get many requests for dances and to be supper partner from other runners who congratulated her.  
>  "Told ya so, dinnit I?" Penda said, catching Tenna's arm as she was leaving. The woman was grinning from ear to ear. "Pretty girl's always heard, ya know."

The word reappears. And again on why Tenna gives Golly first dance with her.

> as much because he didn't expect to get any dances from such a pretty girl as because he asked her first

...and I'm just...rgh.

In any case, Haligon joins Tenna for the next dance, a slower one, "despite the fact that half the male runners at the Gather were now crowding about for a chance to dance with her." He pulls her in close, and they talk about why she runs and he continues to apologize for his actions as he realizes the severity of what he's done. There is one more comedy moment where Tenna asks if Haligon paid asking price for the leather, and Haligon refuses to say how much, even though everyone knew how much Haligon needed that leather as apology.

After dancing, Haligon takes Tenna to the shadow of a deserted stall.

> She smiled to herself, rehearsing a number of deft rejections if she needed them.

Okay, so she's not fallen that far for him. That helps some, although there's a fair amount of kissing going on despite this rejection preparation.

> They kissed quite a bit between dances. He was far more respectful of her person than she expected. And said so.  
>  "With the punch you can deliver, my girl," he answered, "you can bet your last mark I'm not about to risk my brother's fate."  
>  He also found other chilled drinks for her to drink instead of more wine. She appreciated that even more.

Which makes me upset - he's not respecting her as a person, he's respecting the fact that she can knock him out with a punch. I suspect that in any other story, Haligon is not nearly as gentlemanly as he's being portrayed here. And so the continued problem of men not respecting women on Pern continues. We can probably thank Groghe and his attitude toward women for that.

Haligon and Tenna do the toss dance, which we finally get details about - apparently, the idea is for the men to throw their partners high enough in the air for them to do a full rotation before being caught. (Kind of like in pairs figure skating or ice dancing.) Tenna and Haligon are a good enough team that Tenna can turn a couple rotations in her dress and execute a finale that leaves Tenna only a little bit above the dance floor when she's caught by Haligon.

Torlo then tells Tenna she's on the list to run in the morning, so Tenna calls bedtime and Haligon asks her if she's wanting to see him more in the future, when he has his own holding and is going to try and breed "runners...beasts, that is."

> "I might." She smiled up at him. This Haligon was more of a temptation to her than he knew.  
>  Now he smiled back at her, a challenge sparkling in his eyes. "We'll just have to see, won't we?"  
>  "Yes, I guess we will."  
>  With that answer, she gave him a quick kiss on the cheek and ducked into the station before she said more than she ought right now after such a limited acquaintance. But maybe raising runners--both kinds, four-legged and two--in the west wasn't such a bad idea after all.

And, story. That's the end, and my hopes for Tenna staying a childfree career runner are pretty much gone. There was so much promise there.

But, then again, the narrative was doing its utmost to tell us that Tenna was pretty as a way of making sure we knew what kind of story we were really in, and that there would be _[at least the beginnings of]_ romance before all was done. So I suppose I shouldn't have gotten hopeful about it.

And, here at the end, I guess I haven't actually learned a whole lot more about the world than when I started. Just a look in on a runner and the way that runners work. And a romance.

_[It's still aggravating, even after all of this time, especially all the repetition that keeps telling us Tenna is pretty. Because everyone looking at Tenna and remarking that she's pretty, and that Haligon is much more likely to listen to a pretty girl, is very explicitly saying that Tenna's greater worth in society is by being a pretty girl who might be able to persuade people. And it's not really that Tenna manages it, because Torlo and Groghe have the meeting, and there's the Healer that treated Tenna talking about her injuries, and maybe Tenna ringing Horon's bell also helped indicate how serious everything is, but Tenna didn't convince Haligon not to ride on the runner traces, Groghe did that. And Haligon pretty explicitly says that he's going to treat Tenna with more respect because she's already demonstrated the ability to knock him out with a single punch, otherwise we would probably have had a different sequence where Tenna is supposed to convince him, rather than punch him. Tenna, by her own admission, wants her body to be good for long-distance running and says she can punch as hard as any of the boys. Everyone around her says that she's pretty, and that she's pretty, and that she's pretty. And when she's in something that's designed to make her look conventionally attractive (and that gives her a little extra bust), then Tenna understand that she certainly could be pretty, but it doesn't really change her disposition toward herself. It's too bad that we only have this short story and a little piece in Skies of Pern about Runner Tenna, because she seems like the kind of person to give us a really good look of how things work on Pern from the perspective of people who aren't nobles and dragonriders, even if she will interact with nobles and dragonriders on occasion. Tenna could be her own novel series to help flesh out the worldbuilding more.]_

Well, I guess that means we're on to another novel, The Skies of Pern, next. Which is putting us close to the point in time where Pern turns over to a new person.


End file.
